A familiar orange
fish is appearing by the hundreds on the Calvin College campus in an
effort to combat world hunger.

The "Peter
fish" is actually a plastic, fish-shaped bank, which Calvin's Social
Justice Coalition (SJC) — in partnership with the Christian
Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) — is distributing
across the Calvin campus during the October 4-8 World Hunger Week.

In a month the filled fish
will be returned to the SJC, which will donate the proceeds to Bread
for the World and the CRWRC.

The story of the Peter fish
is told in the Biblical book of Matthew when Jesus tells Peter to go
to the lake and throw out his line. The first fish he catches, Jesus
says, will in its mouth have a coin which Peter should use to pay the
temple tax.

The CRWRC believes that the
Peter fish is an excellent symbol for its annual world hunger campaign
and has been using the fish as a fundraiser for years. So many years,
in fact, that Calvin students who are currently picking them up around
campus remember them from their childhoods.

“I remember getting
one when I was in Sunday School. I took it home and we filled it up,”
says junior Dave Salverda , a native of Cambridge, Ont., who was passing
out the fish from a table in the college's Johnny's Café.

This is the first year the
college has used the fish during world hunger week, and SJC organizers
quickly ran through their supply of 500 fish when they passed them out
at a Sunday night Living Our Faith Together (LOFT) service. An additional
supply of 300 fish is disappearing fast.

Calvin students often do
more than plug spare change into the fish. Many choose to make their
giving sacrificial.

"They’ll drop
something for a week," says Salverda, "like drinking coffee.
And then they'll drop the money they would have spent into the fish."

The bright orange Peter fish
is only the most visible part of the SJC's many-pronged anti-hunger
campaign.

Calvin students
also fasted from sunrise to sunset and prayed during chapel break on
Wednesday, October 6. That same day the SJC hosted John Orkar, who works
with the CRWRC on poverty programs in West Africa.

And on Friday,
October 8 (at 8 pm), the SJC is hosting a benefit concert, featuring
Calvin musicians, at Four Friends Coffeehouse in Grand Rapids.